


Something Beautiful

by wesleyfanfiction_archivist



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-03-20
Updated: 2004-08-12
Packaged: 2018-07-12 08:39:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7094620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wesleyfanfiction_archivist/pseuds/wesleyfanfiction_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wes and Harmony bond after "Harm's Way." They discuss death, murder, under appreciation... and being buried in Gucci. I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Drinks Are On Me

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Versaphile, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [WesleyFanfiction.net](http://fanlore.org/wiki/WesleyFanFiction.Net). Deciding that it needed to have a more long-term home, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact the e-mail address on [WesleyFanfiction.net collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/wesleyfanfiction/profile).

Author's Note: I saw "Harm's Way," and I loved it! I've really warmed to Harmony. I was a little bit annoyed too, I mean, Wes shot his dad (granted, not his real dad, but he thought it was) and he went away because of it. Now he's back, suddenly he's fine. I don’t know if it gets resolved better in later episodes, but at the moment I'm not happy about it. So, I was thinking and this is what happened.

***

Spike offered Wesley a grim smile as Wes entered the bar. He even gave Wesley what Wes assumed was an attempt at a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Instead, it felt awkward, with neither of them quite knowing how to react to it. For a moment, Wes couldn’t think why Spike was being so friendly. He remembered suddenly, with a lurching in his stomach that made him think he would throw up.

"I, uh, wouldn’t go to the bar if I were you, mate," Spike said, making an attempt at idle conversation. He glanced back and thumbed over his shoulder, "Harm's wallowing."

Wes looked over Spike's shoulder and took a step toward the bar. Spike shrugged, lifted his hand to pat Wes's shoulder again, but decided better of it and left with yet another grim smile.

Wes looked toward the bar again, this time seeing Harmony, slumped over the bar top, chin in hand, sucking a bright pink cocktail through a straw and twirling a miniature umbrella in the other hand. 

He crossed the room to the bar, ignoring the whispers that died as he passed.

"… On the roof!"

"And not just one shot… White Hat - ha!"

"…. Had it all planned, I heard…"

He swallowed, pretended not to hear and sat beside Harmony, hoping her incessant chatter would drown out the whispers. In wasn’t in the mood for a conversation, but he was in the mood for a drink and he knew Harmony well enough to know that she wouldn’t expect an answer to her chitchat. At least, that’s what he hoped

He waved to the bartender and ordered an English beer - credit where it was due, Wolfram and Hart always got the good stuff in - and glanced at Harmony. She hadn't seemed to notice him, instead she was blowing bubbles in her cocktail morosely and Wes almost sighed in exasperation before making an attempt.

"How are you?" he asked after a moment of waiting for her to speak.

"Huh?" she finally looked up at him, slid the straw from her lips and frowned at him.

"After the events of today," he elaborated, trying to remain friendly even while impatience edged into him and his mind - sounding remarkably like his father - hissed that this had never been a good idea. When she still didn’t answer, he prodded further, "so, after today, how are you?"

"All right," she shrugged, after a small pause. She went to turn back to her cocktail before suddenly shaking her head and looking at him, "no. No, actually, I'm not all right. I've had a really tough day, y'know? Do you know how stressful it is, thinking you've killed someone?" he winced, deciding this really hadn't been a good idea. Harmony didn’t notice and carried on without a pause, "and Spike walked out on me just now. You'd think he owed me five minutes to listen to me after everything we've - oh. Sorry."

She grimaced and watched him warily to gauge his reaction.

"For what?" Wes asked, stunned into reply by her sudden stop, "am I supposed to be offended by you wanting to talk to Spike instead of me?"

"No, I mean 'cause you shot your dad that time." 

Wes coughed; spluttering and Harmony thumped his back, grimacing once again as she replayed the bluntness of her words.

"I'm sorry," she moaned, "I'm trying to change, to be more tactful. I really am. But sometimes, I just…"

She tailed off and sat back as he regained his composure, not noticing the giggles and glances from others in the bar. Wes also didn’t notice them; he was too busy staring into his beer. Well, there it was, laid out in all its brutal glory. Yet, somehow, he noted with some surprise, it didn’t feel quite so horrible as when the others tried to dodge around the subject.

"Quite all right," he replied, still staring into the pint glass instead of looking at her.

"That kinda makes my troubles seem dumb," she said brightly, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before continuing, "um, has Angel spoken to you about… it?"

"Not really," Wes shrugged, trying to remember whether Angel had said much, "well, except to say that he killed his parents," Harmony snorted. To his surprise, Wes found himself chuckling, "no. I didn’t think it was the most tactful thing to say either."

"I try, y'know, to be more sensitive and open to what others are feeling," Harmony sighed, "but sometimes, I get so caught up in my life that I forget other people have lives too. Not great ones, but still… So. What do you want me to say about the whole killing your robot dad thing?"

Wes opened his mouth to ask her to drop the subject in favour of something lighter, but instead he shrugged and swirled in his beer in his glass.

"How about not telling me you killed your parents too?" he offered.

"I didn’t kill them," she replied.

"Thank you," he said, looking at her with a smile.

"No, really," Harmony protested, "I didn’t."

"Oh," Wes frowned, then - for some reason he wasn’t quite able to grasp at that moment - he asked, "why not?"

"They weren't in the country," she replied simply, "they were in Japan in some talks with some major company or something. They came back for the funeral, but by the time I'd risen, they'd gone again. Anyway, what would have been the point?"

"I don’t know," Wes replied, "I just thought that was what vampires did."

"You really aren't as smart as they give you credit for, huh?" Harmony commented bluntly, eyeing him over the salt encrusted rim of her glass.

"I've often thought so," he replied, wondering why he smiled and made it a joke when other times, the thought made him queasy.

"I had nothing against my parents," Harmony went on suddenly, putting her glass down, "why should I? They were the coolest. They were away a lot, so I got the house to myself for slumber parties with the girls and actual parties with boys. And they were always saying I could have anything I wanted. Clothes, shoes, purses," she smiled slightly, almost wistfully as her eyes twinkled, "and you know what? They buried me in Gucci."

"Gucci?" Wes raised his eyebrows in surprise, "I didn’t know they did coffins."

Harmony rolled her eyes at his obvious stupidity.

"No, doofus, that’s because they don’t. I'm talking the hottest little black dress you ever saw," her voice dropped to a murmur, "I really should get around to dry cleaning it. Oh!" Wes watched in blinking fascination as Harmony dug through her purse and retrieved a small baby blue Dictaphone, "they didn’t have pink," she informed him when she noticed his glance. She clicked record and enunciated slowly - which Harmony interrupted as loudly - into the small microphone, "don’t… for-get… toooo ta-ake the Guuu-ci dreeeess to the… drrrrry cleeeean-ers."

She clicked stop and grinned at Wesley. He answered with a chuckle.

"Let me guess - grave dirt is so passé?"

"Totally!" she answered, "wow, I feel like we're really bonding, Wesley!"

Suddenly, as she finished her sentence, her smile faded and she turned on her stool away from him. She quickly ordered another drink and nibbled on a few peanuts from the bowl on the bar as she waited. Wes blinked, a little surprised and, for the first time in a while, was completely focused on something other than what happened a few weeks ago on the roof. Just what had he done wrong?

"What?" he asked and it came out more blunt and childish than he had intended.

"You," she snapped, "you… You're being all… nice!"

"I'm sorry?" he offered hesitantly, part apology and part question.

"And tomorrow," she raged on, ignoring him, "you'll go back to treating me like crap again. 'Harmony, where's my blood?' 'Harmony, I gave that file to you an hour ago!' 'Harmony, what's that camel doing here?' 'Harmony, this is all. Your. Fault.'"

Wes recoiled slightly and hurried through every meeting he had ever been in with Harmony.

"Harmony, I hardly think that's the point."

"I have to disagree with you, Harmony. That's ever so slightly ridiculous."

"Harmony, I'm glad you're here. We'll be needing lunch."

He cringed as another, much older and completely un-Harmony-related, memory rose in his mind.

"Wes? Would you research that demon? After you've cleaned up, of course. Cordy's going home and I'm going to bed, but you can wake me if you find anything."

"I know how you feel," he said quietly.

"Oh, yeah?" she sneered, taking a large gulp of her cocktail which made her sway back slightly, "since when, Mr Big Shot? You're always ordering people around. Telling them what to do. You've always done it. Back in High School - oh, yes, don’t you think I don’t remember you from Sunnydale. I did use the library sometimes, y'know. And when I first came to LA, maybe if you'd been a little more welcoming, I'd have stayed on the right side!"

"I understand," he nodded, "and yes, I've been cruel to you and I suppose I can be a little pompous and bossy. But believe me when I say I know what it's like to be under-appreciated. To feel like you'll never fit in and that no matter how hard you try, you'll never be really, genuinely liked."

Harmony blinked, her lips still wrapped around the rim of her glass in surprise. She slurped the last of her drink, gulped hard and set it down. 

"Ok," she said, attempting to appear uninterested, "so maybe you do," she looked at him. There was a long silence until she sighed, "you gonna tell me about it then or what?"

"All right," he nodded, drank the last of his beer, then raised his hand to the bartender. He dug his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans and opening it. He saw her questioning look and pulled out a couple of bills, "but first, the drinks are on me."

***

TBC…


	2. Dressing To Kill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm enjoying writing this fic. I'm not so good with humour writing, but I hope this gives you a few little chuckles, even if it doesn’t make you squirt milk out your nose in laughter.

Author's Note: I'm enjoying writing this fic. I'm not so good with humour writing, but I hope this gives you a few little chuckles, even if it doesn’t make you squirt milk out your nose in laughter.

And the inspiration for this chapter came from seeing the dire state of Wes's dress sense this season. So, after a lot of thought, I thought I'd dress him in something new, with a little inspiration from season 1 and 4. Because I like him scruffy and in suits.

***

"Morning, Wes," Harmony said brightly as he walked past her desk.

He stopped leaned over the desk and offered her a winning smile.

"Harmony," he said graciously.

Her own smile slipped and she frowned at him suspiciously.

"What do you want?" she asked warily.

"Want?" he repeated innocently, "who said I wanted anything?"

"Because you're smiling like you want something. I know that smile."

She did indeed. It was two weeks on from their meeting in the bar and they had spoken a lot more often than they had done before, they had even gone out for a drink once or twice after work. And it had been Harmony that Wes raged to when Angel killed his PA, Martin. 

Well, ok, his PA had been evil and was plotting the ugly death of Wes and all his friends, but couldn’t Angel have waited until Martin had finished the report he had been working on?

"All right," he relented and handed her the file he had been carrying, "I was wondering if you would do me the great favour of doing some quick internet research for me," he leaned over the desk and flipped open the file, "I've highlighted a couple of points on this report I want checking and I wondered if you would be so kind…"

"Wesley," Harmony moaned, "haven't you got a new PA yet?"

"I've got high standards," he protested, "I can't just have any old twit. And I haven't gotton around to interviewing anyone. I'm a very busy man, y'know."

"I know," she replied, attempting to smooth his ruffled feathers, "chill. I'll see what I can do. Angel's taking a nap, this shouldn’t take too long," she flicked quickly through the pages, "you've not highlighted much. I'll do it, then get it typed and a final copy over to your office in two hours, k?"

"You're a life saver," he answered, "thanks, Harmony. I owe you one. See you later."

He turned away from, marvelling once again how friendly they were. When his PA was decapitated, Harmony was the one he handed any work to because - for some reason - he trusted her. 

"How about you owing me two?" Harmony called. He stopped and turned around, raising his eyebrows in question. Harmony studied her manicured nails, attempting to look casual, "I know some people who are desperate to move up in this company. Some of them are jerks, some of them are completely brain-dead, but some of them might have the makings of a decent PA. No where near as good as me of course," she added hastily, "but I can find you someone. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about it. Or worry me with anymore of your work. I don’t get paid for it, y'know."

"Then, Harmony, I suppose I'll owe you two," he replied, "and should I be worried about what I'm going to owe you?"

"That depends," Harmony answered.

"On what?" he asked, suddenly wary.

"On how attached you are to those pants and that shirt," she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

***

Wes crossed the lobby, stomach growling as he headed in the direction of the staff break room. Harmony saw him go by, closed the file she was working on, grabbed her purse and jumped up.

"Wesley! Wes, wait!" she called.

He stopped and waited for her to catch up.

"Hello," he greeted, "I got the report back a couple of hours ago. Thank you for that."

"Now it's your turn to hold up your end of the bargain. We'll go talk about it now," she said brightly. She saw Angel walk out of his office and she called over to him, "Angel? Wes and I are taking our lunch break now. We'll be back in an hour! See ya, Boss!"

"An hour?" Wes spluttered, "I was going to grab a sandwich and eat it in my office."

"Go," Angel answered, frowning at them, "you go on, Harmony. Wes, could I have a word first?"

"Yes, of course," Wes nodded, "I'll see you in the break room, Harmony," she nodded and left them and Wes turned expectantly to Angel, "yes?"

"You and Harmony seem to be, uh, hanging out a lot lately," Angel said carefully.

"We got talking in the bar a couple of weeks ago," Wes replied, "she's been doing a little work for me since you decapitated my PA."

"Uh, yeah, sorry about that," Angel answered, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"So, why was it you brought up the subject of my friendship with Harmony?" Wes asked, lifting his eyebrow and making the vampire shift even more uncomfortably.

Of course, Wes knew exactly why he had brought up the subject. Angel wasn’t Harmony's biggest fan and having one of his friends grow close to her couldn’t be a good thing in Angel's eyes. 

"I just wondered… why you were so friendly," Angel answered, "she is a vampire. And a bit of a… well, ditz."

"I think ditz is a little harsh, Angel," Wes said, frowning, "and yes, I know she's a vampire, but she's trying her best to stay on the straight and narrow. If there's any chance I can help her remain on that path, I'll take it. Anyway, she's just a friend, you needn't worry. Anyway, I think we could do with all the friends we can get at the moment, don’t you?"

"Yeah. You've got a point," Angel glanced over Wes's shoulder to make sure Harmony had gone, "and I wouldn’t say it to her, but…" he leaned in a little closer, his voice dropping to a low murmur, "she does some good work."

"I know," Wes replied, "well, I'd better go, I'm starving."

"All right. See ya later, Wes."

Wes nodded in reply and continued on his way into the staff break room. Harmony was already seated, sipping from a warm mug of blood. She was doodling on a notepad, while munching idly on an Oreo. He went to the fridge and retrieved a sandwich he had put there that morning and went to sit with Harmony, unwrapping the silver foil as he did so.

"Urgh," Harmony wrinkled her nose, looking up and eyeing the thick sandwich with distaste.

"Cheese and pickle," he replied defensively, "an English classic. Now what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"What you owe me," she said, a mischievous smile on her face, "a makeover."

He coughed, dropping his sandwich and wiping the tears that his coughing fit brought to his eyes. He looked up at her, eyes wide with horror.

"Makeover?" he cried, "please, Harmony, tell me you're joking?"

"You could do with one," she said firmly, "look at you, Wes. You're wearing all these horrible bland colours. You tuck your shirts in, but in this weird English way. It does nothing for you," she gave him a shrewd look, leaning back and folding her arms, "and if you want any kinda chance with Fred, you want to make an impact."

Wes stopped chewing, blinked and swallowed hard.

"I've no idea what you're talking about," he said in a low, dignified voice.

Harmony wasn’t buying it and she rolled her eyes. Honestly, men were so transparent. Wesley most of all, though she wondered whether Fred knew about his feelings. Either way, Harmony had gotton to know Wes well enough over the past two weeks to be able to see right through him. After all, she wasn't stupid.

"I'm not stupid," she said, "and you don’t get to argue on this one, Wes. You've gotta do as I say. You owe me a favour and if this is the only way I'm ever gonna get you out of beige, then so be it," she nibbled the top of her pen before returning to scribble furiously on her notepad.

He had finished his sandwich and was considering making himself a cup of coffee when Harmony finally looked up.

"Ready?" she asked.

"As I'll ever be," he replied.

She lifted the pad, looked at it for a moment, then hugged it to her chest. She turned it around with a proud smile and a "ta-da!" flourish. He blinked at it for a moment, utterly bewildered by her almost indecipherable doodle. He assumed it was him in her idea of the perfect outfit. An idea of the perfect outfit that he wasn’t in exact agreement with.

"You're joking, of course?"

"You have pretty eyes, Wes," Harmony said firmly, "this will bring 'em out."

***

That night, when Wes shut the door of his apartment behind him and yawned, he wandered into his bedroom. He rubbed his eyes, stretched and opened his closet. He stared at the vast array of clothes stuffed into his closet. He was surprised at the amount of clothes he had and with a sigh, he pitched himself forward into the sea of fabrics and rifled through them to find something that fitted Harmony's criteria.

He wrestled a shirt out of the closet, toppling over as he did so. He hung the shirt on the door of the closet and found the other things Harmony had specified. With a doubtful frown, he held the clothes against him and looked in the mirror on the inside of the door of the closet.

"I do have pretty eyes," he admitted.

***

The next morning, Wes strode slightly self-conciously into the Wolfram and Hart building. He had taken Harmony's advice and had opted for the blue shirt and a dark charcoal suit. He had resisted the urge to tuck his shirt in and instead grabbed a couple of ties to stash in his desk should he need to don one for an impromptu meeting that day.

He had given himself an honest appraisal in the mirror that morning and had to admit, he looked quite good. The blue went well with the colour of the suit and brought out his "pretty eyes." He looked professional, but not tucking his shirt in and the lack of a tie made it less stuffy looking.

He stepped out the elevator, walked over to Harmony's desk and leaned over it, waiting silently for her to finish on the phone.

"… Ok, we'll get right on it. Thanks. Bye," Harmony looked up at him and clapped her hands, squealing in delight, "oh, you look great! I told you!"

"Thank you," he answered, "though I do admit to feeling a little self conscious."

"But you look good, for a change. Y'know, if I've managed to get you looking cool, I might be able to work my magic on Angel. I think red is just his colour…" her expression became dreamy and her fingers inched toward her notepad and pen.

"Yes, well. I think you'll have your work cut out there," Wes warned her, but couldn’t resist a little smile at the image of Angel in something Harmony dreamed up.

"Hey, Wes. Angel wants to brief us on some new sitch," Gunn said, coming up behind Wes, "woah. That’s a new look."

"What?" Wes asked, turning to face Gunn.

"The suit thing," Gunn said, waving a hand at Wes's attire, "suits you, man."

Wes smiled at the pun and shrugged, secretly pleased. He avoided Harmony's triumphant look and raised his hand in greeting as Angel stomped out of the elevator.

"Wes, Gunn tell you about the briefing? Good. My office, five minutes. Nice suit by the way," Angel said, sweeping past them into his office.

Shrugging at Angel's sleep deprived grumpiness, Gunn excused himself to gather some info he needed to brief the group on, leaving Wes at the mercy of Harmony's triumph.

"Any messages for me?" he asked.

"Nope," Harmony shook her head, eyes once more sweeping over his outfit, "only this: your new PA starts work this morning. Louise. She's waiting in your office now."

"What?" he asked, "PA? A new PA? You found her?"

"I told you I would. And I did."

"Thank you again," he said.

Harmony shrugged and answered the phone as it rang shrilly through the air. With a smile, sure today was going to be a good day; he turned in the direction of his office. A petite redhead in a professional suit came towards him, smiling.

"Mr Wyndham-Pryce?" she asked, sticking out her hand, "I'm Louise Kinley. Your new PA."

He shook her hand slowly.

"Good to meet you, Miss Kinley," he said.

"Louise," she replied with a slightly flirtatious smile, "and I think you'll be wanting this report in your briefing. Want me to come to take notes?"

"No, I think I can handle it," he took the report, oddly pleased that she had known without asking what he needed, "I shouldn’t be too long. I'll see you in my office and we'll go over what sort of things I'll need you to do. Thank you, Louise," he said, nodding at the file in his hand.

"It's my job, Mr Wyndham-Pryce," she said, putting a certain emphasis on his name. She turned away, her hips swaying deliberately as she walked away from him.

He raised his eyebrows at Harmony's good choice. He was the last one into the briefing and was pleased to note Fred's double take.

"You look… nice, Wes," she complimented; though he was slightly offended by the surprised tone in her voice.

"Just something I threw together," he replied with a shrug, looking at Angel expectantly.

Once Angel had started his lecture, Wes risked a glance through the glass walls of Angel's office at Harmony who was watching. She had seen Fred's appreciative glance and she gave him a double thumbs up.

He smiled at her and discreetly returned her thumbs up before smiling innocently at a frowning Angel.

***

TBC…


	3. Gay? Me?

***

Harmony had heard the rumours long before she started to care. Spiteful whispers when they couldn’t be sure if the object of their gossip would walk in on them. Crude, laugh out loud jokes when they were sure he wouldn’t walk in. 

Harmony, unliked and generally shunned by most of the other people in the building, could eavesdrop without being noticed. Which was what she did now. She pulled a nail file out of her purse and stared intently at her nails as she filed them. But she was listening to the conversation going on behind her, barely stifling her anger and only just holding her tongue.

"It's such a shame," one woman moaned, "such a gorgeous man, so very, very gay."

"You know, I never believed he was gay," her companion answered, "he never dressed like a gay man. But now… Now he dresses great and only gay men dress that well."

Harmony winced when she heard that. That would be her fault. A straight man only dresses like a gay man when he's got a brilliantly fashion conscious female friend to help him. She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them, listening intently.

"I knew he was gay the first moment I saw him," the third woman said, a woman with a face like a horse, who went by the name of Janet.

"Yeah, right," her friend snorted.

"I did!" Janet protested, "you can just tell."

Harmony almost growled, then she thrust her nail file into her purse and stood up, chair squealing loudly across the floor. The conversation behind her came to a shuddering halt and Harmony gave them all a withering look as she made to leave.

She reached her desk, lips still pursed in annoyance and drummed her fingers as she opened up a computer file and got to work.

"Harmony," Angel leaned over the desk and recoiled a little at the fierce glare he received, "you, uh, you ok?"

"Angel, does -" she stopped, glancing round, then lowered her voice so that Angel leaned forward a little more, "does Wesley seem a little… gay, to you?"

"Gay?" Angel blinked, "no, he's had girlfriends and crushes on girls. He's in no way gay."

"That’s what I thought!" Harmony crowed victoriously.

Angel stared at her in confusion, then, having decided long ago not to even attempt to fathom the workings of Harmony Kendall's mind, he shook his head.

"Could you set up a meeting with the Kun Gai clan in Santa Monica?" he asked.

"What?" Harmony asked, frowning in confusion.

"Kun Gai clan," he repeated impatiently, "Santa Monica. A meeting with."

"Ok, ok," Harmony said, grabbing the diary and flicking through it, "you're free at one today. Is that all right?"

"Yeah, let Gunn and Wes know, will you?" he asked and Harmony nodded. He was half way to his office when he paused and turned back to her, "and don’t mention what you said to me to Wesley, will you?"

"Do I look stupid to you?" she asked.

Angel didn’t answer.

"Hey, Angel."

"What?" he asked, turning round to face her again.

"Ever thought about wearing more red?"

"Set up the meeting, Harmony."

***

With the Fang Gang in their meeting, no more work to do and the phones blessedly quiet, Harmony slipped away. She headed in the direction of the staff break room where the clouds of cigarette smoke curling out from the door and the hoarse laughter, told her that Janet and her pals were in residence.

She didn’t give them a second glance as she swept past them and opened the fridge, grabbing her thermos. She sipped from it slowly and watched the group through narrowed eyes.

"Mr Gunn?" one of Janet's friends howled with laughter, "it's so not Mr Gunn! He's totally head over heels for Angel. Haven't you guys seen the way he looks at him?"

"Have you guys got nothing better to do?!" Harmony burst out suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Janet asked, sounding spookily like Harmony in her days as Princess of Sunnydale High.

"You people work at Wolfram and Hart, hotbed of scandal and deceit and here you are talking about whether Wes wants to bone Gunn or Angel more. Hello, more interesting things are happening right now!" she snapped.

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Janet asked.

"Angel's in a meeting right now with the Santa Monica Kun Gai clan!"

"And this is interesting how?" the blonde woman asked.

"Well, ok, maybe not," Harmony admitted sullenly, "but take it from me, Wes is not gay."

"Of course not, honey," Janet sneered, "and you'd know."

Harmony stared at her, furious and for once, completely speechless.

***

Harmony hesitated outside the door of Wesley's office. She stepped backwards, then forwards, twisted her fingers together, backed up then forward again. 

She glanced through the glass wall of his office and watched him for a moment. He was bent over a pile of paperwork. Translating, she decided, noting the selection of books set out before him. His PA, Louise was flicking through a pile of paperwork as she came toward the door. Harmony stepped back; staring intently at the floor as Louise came out of the office.

"Hey, Harmony," she said with a smile.

"Louise, hi. Wow, I so didn’t see you there. I was just… looking at this carpet. Pretty neat, huh?"

"Yeah," Louise replied with a slight frown, "did I ever than you for getting me this job? It's great. Wes is a really cool guy to work with."

"Wes?" Harmony repeated, frowning as Louise averted her gaze, shifting slightly, "that’s… friendly. You should not lose the friendliness by not doing that," she waved at the stack of paperwork in Louise's arms.

"Yeah, you're right," Louise nodded. She was halfway down the hall when she turned and gave Harmony a shrewd look, "Harmony? He can see you through the glass wall."

"What?" Harmony frowned, then glanced at the glass wall, "oh. I knew that!"

Louise raised her eyebrows as she left and Harmony stuck her tongue out at her. When she turned to the door, Wes was standing there, an amused smile on his face.

"Should I be worried?" he asked, "are you on your way to a cat-fight with my PA? Do I have time to sell tickets?"

"You're such a perv, Wes," Harmony rolled her arms, pushing past him into the office, "I don’t know how the girls can think you're -" she stopped, "a gentlemen."

"The girls think I'm a gentlemen?" he looked pleased with himself.

"And gay. Oh, how's Louise doing? She looks super efficient!"

"Gay?" Wes repeated, then his eyes widened, his mouth dropped open and he stared at Harmony in horror. His voice climbed to a high pitched squeal as he asked, "gay?"

"Ok, now I can hear why they thought you were gay."

"But I'm not gay!" he cried.

"I know that," Harmony replied, "but it's your own fault."

"How?!"

"You took my advice on dressing well!"

"You made me!"

"You didn’t check Janet out!"

"What?"

"Janet," Harmony said again, "little brunette, calls herself curvaceous, but it's really just fat. Wears make-up like it's cement and doesn’t know that cigarette smoke isn't Chanel. I saw you hold the door for her yesterday. You didn’t check out her ass or her cleavage. On her gaydar, you're Will and Grace all in one."

Wes sat down heavily on his couch, his face creased in thought. He was silent for a moment and Harmony watched him closely, trying to decide how this news had affected his mood.

"Oh," he said suddenly, "Janet! The one with the war paint."

"Yeah. Only she calls it blusher."

There was a silence and Harmony settled down on the couch beside him and patted his knee gently.

"I am not gay!" he burst out suddenly.

Harmony jumped, snapping her hand back and glared at him.

"Ok, see that was Jack from Will and Grace. You're on a whole new level, buddy."

"You're not helping, Harmony," he gritted out.

"Look, Wes, because you're like my new best friend or something, I'm gonna help you out here. Just carry on as normal, k?"

"And by normal, you mean gay, I suppose?"

"You're not gay, sweetie," Harmony replied, standing up, "I've seen you work out."

She left the room and Wes sank back on the couch.

"She's seen me work out?" he asked aloud, "when?"

***

Harmony wasn’t surprised to find Janet and her two friends at their usual table in the staff break room. It wasn’t like they ever did any work because that would get in the way of the fun gossiping.

"Hey, Harmony?" Janet's blonde friend said, "are there any more interesting meetings going on? Like, the vampires and the werewolves, can we get front row seats?"

They sniggered and Harmony rounded on them.

"No, but I do have other news. But it's about Mr Gunn, so you wouldn’t be interested."

She turned away and counted. 

1\. 2. 3. 4. 5.

"Mr Gunn?"

"Mmmm," Harmony replied casually, retrieving her thermos from the fridge. There was a long pause while she took a sip from her thermos, "let's just say, you guys were right about Angel being the main attraction. But you were wrong about who was attracted."

"You mean… Mr Gunn?" Janet gaped.

"You mean you didn’t guess?" Harmony asked innocently, taking a seat at a table opposite and pulled out a magazine. 

She glanced up at the doorway, saw Wes hesitating just out of sight and inclined her head a little. He peeked into the break room, saw Harmony point subtly but firmly at Janet and her friends and straightened up. 

He strode into the break room and ignored everyone as he made his way to the coffee machine. Harmony pretended not to have noticed him and continued scanning her magazine. Janet and her friends were giggling and nudging each other, but they stopped immediately when Wes turned around, holding his mug of coffee. As he made his way out again, he slowed as he drew level with Janet's table.

"Ladies," he said, in a low, charming voice, complete with flirtatious smile and lifted eyebrow. They smiled in reply and he moved on, pausing by Harmony's table, "Harmony, you look lovely today."

She glanced down, placing a hand on her chest lightly.

"What, this old thing?" she laughed.

"See you later," he said, smiling at her and leaving the break room.

As soon as he disappeared, Janet let out an audible sigh.

"Thank God that man isn't gay," she said.

Harmony smirked, gathering her thermos and magazine to leave the break room, unnoticed, as usual. 

She saw Wesley halfway down the hall. She ran to catch up with him and grabbed his elbow.

"You did it!" she cried, "and where the hell did you get that James Bond flirt from? That's what swung it for you."

"It’s a natural talent," he replied, "so, did you say someone else was gay in my place?"

"I might have," Harmony answered evasively.

"Who?"

There was a pause in which Harmony wondered whether to come clean. She was about to (honestly!) when she saw a certain Mr Charles Gunn up ahead and decided against it.

"Oh, just Joe from Accounting," she said.

***

TBC…

Ah, isn't it a shame Wes isn't gay? With Gunn looking so damned hot at the moment, wouldn’t they make the best couple? Mmmm, I really must get round to writing more slash…


	4. Lady Killer

***

There was a screech of laughter that Harmony immediately identified as belonging to Louise Kinley, Wesley’s PA. When Harmony opened her eyes - the laughter having echoed out of her sensitive ears - she found that the person on the other end of the line had slammed the phone down.

“Well, excuse me!” she huffed indignantly. 

Now that she no longer had to try and explain to her caller that the Ritual Sacrifices department no longer existed, Harmony could return to more important matters. She had scrawled a list on a lemon yellow post-it. So far she had Fred, Eve and the girl from Files and Records. Fred had three lines under her name and a heart at the side of it. Harmony had decided it was her duty to find Wes a girlfriend and, because she knew exactly how Wes felt about Fred, that’s who was at the top of her list. 

But Harmony had heard of Wes’s relationship with Lilah and knew of his fondness for evil, well-dressed, intelligent, lawyer types. So, because a girl should always have a back up plan, Eve was on her list, though the girl always made her shudder for some reason. But Harmony had no complaints about her dress sense. 

And, in case she was really unlucky and neither Fred nor Eve worked out, the girl from Files and Records looked like she would scrub up all right.

There was a clatter of heels and Louise entered the lobby, her red hair pulled back in an elegant chignon, attired in a silk shirt, with a black skirt and jacket, teetering on black heels. Harmony glanced down at her ruffled lilac skirt with matching top, then self consciously touched her hair, which was pinned back with a glittery, butterfly shaped slide. She felt a flash of envy as she compared her own colourful tastes to that of the effortlessly put together Louise. 

Then she curled her lip, shaking her head, no one would notice Louise in that. She blended in too well in that outfit. 

At least Harmony was noticed. 

Even as she thought it, Wes walked into the lobby, wandered over to her desk, but his eyes followed Louise towards the elevators.

Well, maybe Harmony had been wrong about the noticeable thing. 

“Ow!” Wes grabbed his stomach and rubbed it where he had banged into Harmony’s desk. 

“Earth to Wesley,” Harmony said, “see what happens when you don’t pay attention?”

“I was paying attention!” he protested.

“Not to where you were going, you weren’t.”

Wes shifted uncomfortably and blushed. Harmony rolled her eyes and stood up, looking forward to a couple of mugs of blood and a conversation with Wesley.

“I’m ashamed of you,” she sighed, “you really are just a guy.”

“Afraid I can’t argue with that,” he replied, “anyway, I should get going. Louise should be back in a while with the file she went to get.”

“Uh-huh.”

Harmony shrugged, pretended she hadn’t stood to go to lunch with him by reaching across her desk to grab a pile of papers. He frowned at her sudden coolness, but didn’t say anything and Harmony sat down with a thump as she watched him return to his office.

Harmony glanced down and noted with a wondering frown that she hadn’t thought to put Louise on the list.

***

“… You didn’t?!”

“Well, of course, it wasn’t funny at the time…”

“But you actually came on to them? Knowing they could burn you alive?”

“To be fair, the attraction was created by them. It was an other dimensional demon thing.”

Harmony glanced up, unnoticed, and listened to the tail end of one of Wesley’s stories. Stories that Harmony practically had to pry from between the ex-Watcher’s tightly pursed lips.

“What’s this?” Harmony asked, raising her voice over their laughter.

Louise patted Wes’s arm and smiled at Harmony. Harmony didn’t like that smile one bit, it was deeply condescending and she knew what Louise was going to say before she even said it.

“Oh, nothing,” Louise replied casually, “Wes was just telling me something.”

Not knowing how to answer that, Harmony remained silent.

“Well, I ought to get going,” Louise said after a moment, “I thought we could go for a drink,” she smiled flirtatiously, but from where Harmony was sitting, it looked like a smirk, “tomorrow night? I’d ask you out tonight, but I know you’re busy.”

“Yes, a drink sounds wonderful. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Louise.”

She nodded and sauntered away. Wes watched her, seemingly transfixed, until Harmony coughed.

“I thought we were going for a drink tomorrow?” she asked, trying to sound cold instead of hurt.

“Were we?” Wes frowned, trying to remember, “oh, God! Yes, we were. I’m sorry, Harmony, but I’m sure Louise wouldn’t mind if you…” he tailed off as Harmony shook her head. He gave her a tentative smile, “you don’t mind, do you?”

“Mind?” Harmony repeated in a shrill voice, “no, of course not. It’s about time you had a date.”

“Date?” Wes said, then smiled cockily, “yes, I suppose it is. I’ll see you later, Harmony, I’m working late.”

Harmony nodded and watched him walk away.

“He’s humming!” she hissed incredulously, “all right, Louise Kinley. You’re going down.”

***

Harmony peered subtly through the glass walls of Wesley’s office and found that only Louise was in there, smiling and leaning back in Wesley’s chair. Harmony felt a rush of fury and rapped hard on the door. Louise quickly ended her conversation and opened the door, gave Harmony an odd look before fixing a wide, entirely false smile, on her face. 

“Harmony, hi. What can I do for you?”

“I had to talk to you, while the Boss man was out the way,” Harmony slipped past Louise, wringing her fingers and nibbling her lip.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just that… Well, since I heard about you and Wes going for a drink, I decided I just had to tell you. I mean, I never thought he would do this with an employee. Not again anyway.”

“Do what? Harmony! Will you tell me what you’re talking about!”

“What, you’ve not heard?” Harmony batted her eyelashes innocently. Louise shook her head and Harmony suppressed a triumphant smirk, “oh, no. You poor, poor thing.”

Harmony sank down onto the couch and Louise followed her slowly, staring at her nervously. Harmony took a deep breath, waited and then continued.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, Louise, because I can tell you really like Wesley. Believe me, so do I. He’s a good friend. But I have to tell you this, girls together, right? Wesley is a… womaniser.”

Louise blinked, her mouth twitched and then she burst into loud peals of laughter.

“Oh, Harmony, you are funny!”

“I’m serious! I’m trying to save you from being yet another of Wesley Wyndham-Pryce’s conquests. Believe me, it’s not a nice feeling.”

“You mean, you two…?”

“Alas,” Harmony sniffled, covered her mouth, and indicated that she needed a minute. She took another deep breath, “we’re ok now, Wes and I. We’re good friends, but, if I’m honest,” she allowed her voice to crack slightly, “he broke my heart. I don’t want the same for you. Trust me, he can’t have F-” she stopped, that was going a little too far, “now he can’t have the woman he loves, he’s looking for anyone. He’s had Lilah Morgan, me, Mr Gunn’s PA, the, um, girl from Files and Records, and I think he was after Eve too. Then you came along.”

“I don’t…” Louise looked stunned, “I really like him, I thought he was a gentleman. I thought he liked me.”

“Oh, he does,” Harmony said, patting Louise’s hand gently, “that’s why he’s into you. But once you’ve, well… that’ll be it. He’ll have moved on.”

Louise pursed her lips, eyes blazing furiously.

“He was going to use me?” she hissed, “why didn’t you warn me before?”

“After me,” Harmony said, making it up as she went along, “he said he wouldn’t try it with any other woman from work. I believed him. I know he’s a great guy to work with and I thought you’d enjoy working with him.”

“I did,” Louise stood up, pacing up and down, “but that’s it, I’m handing in my resignation. You’ll let me tell him, won’t you?”

“Of course. I’m sorry to have had to tell you this, Louise.”

“No. Thank you for telling me, Harmony.”

With a smile, Harmony left the office, banging straight into Gunn.

“Oh, sorry,” he muttered, starting to carry on down the hall, before he looked back at her, “Harmony?”

“Yeah?” she asked hesitantly, remembering vaguely that she ought to be avoiding him, but she couldn’t think why.

“You haven’t heard any… rumours about me, have you?” he asked, looking embarrassed.

She wondered what he was talking about, when suddenly she remembered replacing Wesley with Gunn in that gay rumour mill.

“What? Oh, those,” she waved her hand, “I wouldn’t worry about them, they change every week.”

“You sure about that?” 

“Yes,” she nodded empathically, making a mental note to try and damp down the rumours as she watched Gunn walk away. 

Then she glanced back at Wes’s office, where Louise was striding angrily in and out of view, gathering her things.

Mission accomplished. Goodbye, Louise.

***

Harmony watched as Louise crossed the lobby furiously, taking the elevator back to her old floor. Wes followed five minutes later, looking slightly lost and dazed. Harmony bent over her work, glancing up to watch his slow progress toward her desk.

“What happened?” she asked finally, looking up as he placed his hands on the desk top, blinking as though in a bright light.

“Louise just walked out on me,” he said slowly, “she said there was no way she would continue working with a male, chauvinist pig such as myself who sees women as nothing more than meat. She said she was too good to be used by an arrogant, clumsy, pretty boy like me. What on earth does that mean?”

“That she quits?” Harmony offered helpfully.

“But where on earth did she get all this stuff about me being a womaniser from?” he asked, almost whining.

“Oh, you know what the rumour mill is like in this place,” she said, “people have even been saying that Gunn’s gay. I wouldn’t worry. I’ll do some stuff for you, if you want. Like last time.”

“I suppose,” he looked morose, hands in his pockets; head bowed and bottom lip protruding ever so slightly.

“Hey,” Harmony said gently, “you wanna go for a drink?”

He perked up slightly.

“Yeah, why not?”

Harmony smiled and shut down her computer. He offered her his arm and she tucked her hand through it as they wandered toward the staff bar.

Life, Harmony decided, was a whole lot more fun without interfering Personal Assistants. 

Not that she had been jealous or anything.

***

TBC...

If any of you are wondering, yep, the little conversation between Wes and Louise about the other dimension demon attraction thing is a reference to Wes’s reaction to the demon girls in “She” way back in season 1. Ah, the good old days.


	5. Disturbed, Well Yeah...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that in the last chapter, Harmony was a bad girl. So, here we have the consequences. This is supposed to be a non-angsty fic, so if things seem a little more simple than I normally make em, thats why. Theres a lot to sort out in this too, so its quite long. Does that mean Im forgiven for the long time between updates?

Author's Note: I know that in the last chapter, Harmony was a bad girl. So, here we have the consequences. This is supposed to be a non-angsty fic, so if things seem a little more simple than I normally make ‘em, that’s why. There’s a lot to sort out in this too, so it’s quite long. Does that mean I’m forgiven for the long time between updates?

Oh, and this is set a week after the last chapter. It starts off with some frostiness between the two because Harmony’s admitted what she did. Also, there’s one use of the “f” word. I didn’t think it was enough to warrant this moving up to a PG, but I thought I should warn you.

***

“I’d like five copies of this, please, Harmony,” Wes said icily, extending his arm stiffly to hand her a couple of sheets of paper. From under his arm he pulled a file and flicked through it as Harmony took the papers with a tremulous smile. He glanced up and didn’t return her smile, “and if you have a spare moment, I’d like to see the Inubik file. I’m sorry to be asking you this,” he met her eyes frostily, “but, as you know, I no longer have a PA.”

“I know,” Harmony said, ignoring the pointed comment, “I’ll get right on it. I’ll have the copies on your desk in five minutes and then I’ll go straight down to Files and Records for the Inubik file,” she grinned at him, “and I could make you a coffee too, if you’d like…?”

“That’s quite all right,” he answered sharply, “I can make my own.”

He turned on his heel and strode away, as Harmony clutched at the papers in her hands, stomach lurching.

“Wesley!” she called out suddenly, standing up.

He turned suddenly, fixing her with the hard, cold look he had given her ever since her admission three days ago. She gulped, squirmed and glanced down.

“It looks like we could be busy; we might not finish ‘til late. What do you say to a pizza?” this elicited no response from Wesley and Harmony gulped and tried again, “KFC? MacDonald’s? Taco Be-”

“You’ve got work to do, Harmony,” Wes cut in shortly, turning and walking away.

Harmony watched him go, her eyes pricking as she left her desk to go to the photocopier. 

She leaned heavily against the copier, sighing as she once again cursed herself for opening her big mouth. Harmony didn’t do consequences, she never had. Yet, for some reason, what she had done to Louise had preyed on her mind. 

She had been looking for a girlfriend for Wesley and yet she had decided Louise wasn’t good enough and got rid of her. She couldn’t get the fact that she had lied to Wesley and about Wesley out of her mind and it was driving her crazy. So she decided to tell all, telling herself that Wesley would understand, he would commend her bravery for coming clean.

“Let me get this straight,” he had said after a long silence, his low voice making her shiver, “you told Louise that I was a womaniser, that I would use her?”

“Not exactly,” she had replied evasively, “I never said use…”

“But that’s what it amounted to? And, added to that, you told the entire staff that Gunn’s gay?”

“I was trying to help you!”

“If that’s your idea of help, Harmony, I’d really rather you didn’t. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

He had got up then and Harmony was devastated that it hadn’t gone to plan, that he hadn’t said it was ok and he was pleased she had come clean. She jumped up and ran after him, catching up with him in corridor, grabbing his elbow to force him to a halt.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she had said, her desperation creeping into her voice, “you know how I am. I can’t be subtle, I-I don’t think. You knew that from our first real conversation. Before that even!”

“When are you going to stop blaming everything on your ditzy image?” he had snapped in fierce reply, “you and I both know it’s little more than an act. God, Harmony, why did you do it?”

“I was trying to stop the rumours about you!”

“You know damn well that’s not what I’m talking about!”

“I… She wasn’t right for you!”

“And you reserve the right to make that decision for me, do you? It’s not your place to decide who I can or can’t see. It’s my life, as the song says. Now, I’m going to my office and you’re going back to your desk. I’ve got work to do and so have you.”

And ever since, that was how every conversation ended. With him reminding her she had work to do or saying he had work. Apart from short exchanges about work, they hadn’t spoken since she had made her admission three days ago. 

Despite Harmony’s continuous attempts at extending an olive branch, Wes had rejected every one.

And Harmony was running out of ideas.

***

“His name’s Harper,” Angel said, pausing as the photo was passed around the group, “he’s a client. Been in Europe, but now he’s back and expecting to go back to his old deal with Wolfram and Hart.”

“What do you want to do about it?” Fred asked, handing the photo back to Angel.

“There’s a lot more to him than we know about,” Angel answered, “his company was embezzling millions, but I think there’s more to it than that.”

Gunn stepped forward, placed his briefcase on the desk and opened it. He passed around a new stack of photographs. They were more graphic than the first. The first photograph had been of a handsome man, with light hair and stubble. The second stack of photos were of crime scenes. Young women, blood spattered, with wide glassy eyes stared up at them and Fred handed them back with a shudder.

“So he goes in for sacrifices, huh?” Lorne asked, looking a little paler than normal, “what’s the betting this kid never saw a Disney movie in his entire life? No, scratch that, what’s the betting he did? Repeatedly?” he gave a weak laugh that evaporated when no one so much as smiled.

“Well, sooner or later, he’s gonna be in contact,” Angel said grimly, “I think most of these killings took place with the help of our Ritualistic Sacrifices department. We’ll get him, guys.”

***

Harmony was wandering morosely down the hall, a pile of files in her arms. Wesley would forgive her, she was sure of it. After all, she had been trying to help him. As soon as he got that, everything would be fine. He’d need all the help he could get now that Louise was gone and Wes knew she always did a good job.

“Ow!” she cried, as her ankle twisted suddenly in her high heels, the files tumbled from her arms and she hit the floor hard.

“Hey, let me help you.”

Harmony looked up from where she was picking up the files and found herself staring into bright green eyes. The man smiling at her was handsome, clean shaven, with sparkling green eyes and an untidy mess of sandy hair, dressed in faded jeans and checked shirt. 

“Oh, thanks,” she smiled back at him and accepted his hand as he pulled her to his feet.

“Scott,” he introduced himself, offering her his hand.

“Harmony,” she replied, shaking his hand. 

“So, Harmony, what’s a pretty girl like you doing working in a place like this?”

“Trying to earn a living,” she answered, “you?”

“Trying to make one,” he replied, “tell me, you busy at all?”

“Right now? Well, yeah, I mean, I’ve got paperwork. But later, no.”

“Good. I’ll see you in the lobby at eight.”

They had reached her desk and he placed his share of the files on the desk. He gave her a disarming grin and went over to Angel’s office, entering without knocking.

Harmony watched him, with a small, happy smile. Wesley walked into the lobby, glanced at her, noted the smile and followed her gaze through the glass walls of Angel’s office. 

He stared at the man in Angel’s office and felt his stomach churn.

***

“Hey, ‘scuse me.” 

Wesley turned to meet the owner of the voice. He raked his gaze over the man before him, instantly recognising the sandy haired man who had spoken to Harmony earlier before disappearing into Angel’s office.

“Yes?” Wes answered, tone polite, yet vaguely scathing.

“I’m Scott Harper. I’m just on my way back from the Ritualistic Sacrifices department,” he explained, sticking out his hand.

Wes nodded, taking the offered hand and gave it a quick shake as he remembered Spike and Fred had taken over an office to masquerade as the Ritualistic Sacrifices department for the benefit of Mr Harper.

“I see,” Wes nodded, “and what can I do for you?”

“Ah, well, you see, I need pointing in the direction of Harmony Kendall’s desk,” he shot Wes a knowing smirk, “I’m taking her to dinner.”

“Ah,” Wes nodded, clenching his jaw against his fury. 

He toyed briefly with the idea of telling Harper that Harmony had a boyfriend, had gone home, was gay, had been hit by a bus. Anything to stop her going on a date with this man. But then he remembered the cold betrayal he felt when she had admitted that she had gotten rid of Louise by telling her he was a womaniser.

“So,” Harper prompted, “can you point me in the right direction?”

“I’ll show you,” Wes said, leading Harper through the maze of corridors until they reached the main lobby, “why don’t you get a drink,” he indicated the water cooler in the corner, “there’s just something I need to go over with Harmony.”

“Sure,” Harper nodded, glancing at Harmony who hadn’t noticed he had entered the lobby.

“Harmony,” Wes said, voice quiet and urgent as he leaned over her desk, glancing back to make sure Harper was at the other end of the lobby.

“Wesley?” Harmony stared at him, surprised at the lack of ice in his tone. Defensively she narrowed her eyes, “what do you want?”

“You can’t go out with him,” he said bluntly, indicating Harper which a jerk of his chin.

Harmony blinked, shocked, amazed and not a little indignant. Her fingers clenched around her pen and it snapped along with her temper. She stood up sharply and glared at him, her hands gripping the top of her desk furiously.

“Excuse me? Are you telling me not to go out with someone after the fuss you made about Louise?” she hissed

“That was different,” he replied shortly, “this is for your own good.”

He tried not to think about how much he sounded like his father. He folded his arms and scowled, wondering vaguely whether, as her superior, he could forbid her from dating a client.

“Louise wasn’t right for you,” Harmony said stubbornly, folding her arms in a good impersonation of him, “that was for your own good.”

“Harmony, will you please listen to me?” he unfolded her arms, leaning close to her, “Harper is not the man for you. You can do a lot better.”

“His name is Scott,” she grabbed her purse, looking through it for her lip gloss, “you wanna tell me exactly why he’s so bad for me?”

“He’s…” Wes tailed off, remembering the delicacy of the situation, “I can’t tell you.”

Harmony had sat down again and was applying her lip gloss carefully, she gave him a measuring look, lips pursed, eyes narrowed. Her gaze flickered over his shoulder to see Harper approaching and stood up sharply.

“Sorry, Wesley,” she said, shrugging with a mirthless smile, “not good enough,” she stepped around the desk, ignoring Wesley to smile widely at Harper, “Scott. Hi. Where’re we going?”

Scott offered her his arm and she took it with a giggle. Wesley didn’t hear Harper’s answer as he had stomped past them, slamming into Angel’s office.

“We have to do something about Harper,” he snapped at a startled Angel, “now.”

***

“So,” Harper shot Harmony a charming smile, leaning across the table, “how long have you been working at Wolfram and Hart?”

“Oh, you don’t want to talk about work, do you?” Harmony smoothed her hair, shifting her chair closer to the table so that as she leaned forward, her cleavage was used to maximum effect.

“Why not?” Harper asked, “it’s common ground, isn’t it? And Wolfram and Hart’s a pretty interesting place,” he paused, running one, long slender finger up and down the side of a glass, “especially since Angel took over.”

“Well, I guess,” Harmony shrugged, picking up the menu and skimming it quickly. She had never thought Wolfram and Hart was interesting. She’d had more fun during her one day at Angel Investigations than she had in all her months at Wolfram and Hart. She found the work monotonous and boring most of the time and the thrill of a new situation was soon drowned in paperwork.

She also felt uncomfortable with where this conversation was going and found herself avoiding the searching green gaze.

“Oh, I see,” Harper affected a wounded tone, “you can’t tell me, is that it? You can’t discuss work?”

“It’s just…” Harmony tailed off, feeling subdued with the way her date was going, with a sigh, she asked, “what do you want to know?”

“Nothing specific,” Harper shrugged, “it’s just I’ve been away a while. I had a lot of dealings with a certain department, but now I’m back from Europe, there’s some new people running it and it looks kinda… smaller.”

“What department?” Harmony asked, laying aside her menu, figuring this was a non-dangerous line of conversation.

“Ritualistic Sacrifices,” he caught the look on her face and grabbed her hand, “hey, babe, it’s nothing evil. My company just provided the goats.”

“I didn’t think anything,” Harmony smiled, slightly flustered, reaching to gulp from her glass of water, “so who’s, uh, running this department now? It’s, uh, clean slipped my mind.”

“Something like Pike – no, Spike. And a girl, bony little thing, Fred, I think her name was.”

Harmony’s eyes widened and she almost choked on the water. She had been surprised to hear Scott Harper mention the Ritualistic Sacrifices department, it had been the first department scrapped when Angel took over. But he’d been away, she just thought that he hadn’t found out yet and it wasn’t down to her to tell him, that was Angel’s job. 

But Fred and Spike? Why would they pretend to run a department that didn’t exist?

Recovering quickly, Harmony nodded.

“Yeah. You met Winifred Burkle and William the Bloody. They run the department now,” she glanced around, trying to look like she was imparting secret information, “and they are so much more ruthless than the last two Heads of department. In fact, they turned the Heads of department into sacrifices.”

“Really?” Harper drew out the word and leaned back, looking pleased.

Harmony pressed her hands flat on the table, smiled at him and wondered how she could wind this date up quickly.

***

The next morning, Harmony watched as the gang trooped into Angel’s office. She hesitated, before getting up and practically running toward Angel’s door, grabbing it to stop him closing it on her.

“Angel,” she said, “can I talk to you for a moment?”

“I’m about to start a meeting, Harmony,” Angel replied tetchily, “I’ll talk to you later.”

“But it’s important!”

“Later, Harmony!”

“But it’s about -” Harmony winced as the door slammed in her face, “Harper.”

She sighed and returned to her desk, propping her chin in her hand as she watched them through the glass walls.

***

Fred stood up to address the group and glanced at Wes, where he was tapping his pen quickly on the table in agitation. Angel plucked the pen from Wes’s hand and Wes clasped his hands, giving Fred a small smile of apology.

“As you know,” Fred started, “Spike and I set up a fake Ritualistic Sacrifices department to fool Harper. We had no real evidence to get him put away before. But now we do.”

“You do?” Angel asked, sitting up straighter, “already?”

“What evidence do you have?” Wes demanded.

Fred and Spike exchanged a smirk and from the leathery depths of his duster, Spike pulled a small tape recorder.

“We have one taped conversation. We have Harper on tape asking myself and Fred to find him a nice, ripe virgin – preferably a brunette, apparently blondes aren’t his type – and to prepare a sacrifice.”

“We got him,” Angel thumped his clenched fists on the desk, then he glanced at Gunn, “that’s enough, right?”

“Does he actually say he’ll do the killing?” Gunn asked.

“We’ve stopped it at the best bit,” Spike grinned, pressing Play on the tape.

“…brunette, young, attractive. That’s my specification.”

“Any particular reason you want her?”

“Miss Burkle, I would have thought that were obvious.”

“Unlike our predecessors, Mr Harper, we keep extensive records, just in case. The reason, Mr Harper?”

“An offering to the demon Goddess Unging. A blood sacrifice. I’d like an altar prepared. Make sure the knife’s sharp – I can trust you with that, Spike? – I can’t bear blunt instruments, makes the work messy.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’d know a thing or two about that.”

“Course you would, Spike. Who knows, if I’m feeling in an especially good mood that night, I might let you watch. Killing is an art and I intend this girl to be my finest gift to the Goddess yet. Oh, make sure plastic sheeting is put down; it could get a little… gory. Although, I do hate mess when I kill. It’s only murder if it’s messy...”

Spike stopped the tape and held it out to Gunn.

“Yeah,” Gunn said, voice low, feeling slightly sickened, “yeah, that’ll do.”

***

Wes was in his office, trying and failing to concentrate on some document that needed translating. He drummed his fingers with impatience, glanced at his watch and sighed. Gunn had said to wait before he said anything to Harmony, in case she tipped Harper off. The phone rang and Wes grabbed it halfway through its first ring.

“Yes?”

“It’s me,” Gunn said, “our security is on their way to get Harper now. Should be ok if you tell her now; just keep an eye on her ‘til we know he’s been apprehended.”

“Right. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Wes put the phone down, hesitated for only a second, before getting up and heading out of his office to Harmony’s desk.

Only she wasn’t there. He stared at her empty desk, mind working over time, conjuring up all possible reasons for her absence. She had run off, that’s what she had done, Harper had realised they were on to him and he was leaving. Taking Harmony with him. As a lover, as a hostage. As God knows what.

He took a deep breath.

“She’s just gone to the photocopier, that’s all,” he muttered, turning in the direction of said photocopier.

His jaw clenched as he saw Harper sauntering along the hall, cell phone clamped to his ear. Wes sank back, listening intently to the one-sided conversation.

“… It’s cool, dude. Everything’s cool… C’mon, the CEO of this place is a pussycat and the people running the Ritualistic Sacrifices are actually a step up from the last lot. A vampire and a ruthless bitch who looks like butter wouldn’t melt… What do you mean how do I know all this? How do you think? I’ve got an inside track, man… Oh yeah, some stupid ditz with God awful hair and the clothes, dude, you gotta see the clothes! Like something from an 80s revival gig. Made me wanna heave most of the evening, but I got the info I needed… Yeah, you too, man. It’ll be a blast.”

Feeling outraged, Wes grabbed hold of the collar of Harper’s shirt as he passed and jerked him back so that he could grab his arm and twist it up behind his back. Pushing him towards a meeting room, Wes kicked the door open and shoved him inside. With a final, fierce push, Wes let him go and Harper slammed into the table, his cell phone clattering to the floor. 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Harper demanded, “have you got any idea who I am? How much business I put this company’s way? Your boss is gonna be so -”

“My boss couldn’t give a toss about you, Harper,” Wes snapped, “in fact, in about,” Wes glanced at his watch, “oh, ten minutes, no one in this company will even bother to remember you.”

“What’s happening in ten minutes?” Harper asked, eyes darting around the room, looking for an escape route.

“Security are going to find you and you’ll pay for your crimes. Or sacrifices as you like to call them. They won’t make you pay for using a young woman as a source of information and insulting her,” he gave Harper a grim smile, “I’ll do that.”

“What? You mean Harmony?” Harper gave a snort of laughter, “she’s not a woman, she’s a vampire. And what are you, her boyfriend?”

“A friend,” Wes replied, arm snapping out, fist connecting soundly with Harper’s nose. As Harper howled and grabbed his nose, Wes calmly took hold of his shoulder. He pushed Harper down and brought his knee up to meet Harper’s stomach, “and I don’t take kindly to my friends being insulted. Especially by an animal like you.”

Harper lashed out at him. His punch was sloppy, catching Wes in the shoulder barely hard enough to bruise.

“Not very good at this are you?” Wes said, mock disappointment in his voice as he straightened Harper up and brought his fist crashing into Harper’s cheekbone, “people like you make me sick. All those girls. All those girls who had families, people who cared about them. And you destroyed all that and enjoyed doing it. I can’t actually believe you’re human. Is that what you were going to do to Harmony when you were done with her?”

“Please, like I’d waste my talents on someone like her,” Harper rasped, shoving Wesley away from him so that Wes banged hard into the wall with a grimace, “having to spend an evening with her was a complete nightmare. Besides the hair, the clothes, she’s got a laugh like nails on a chalkboard. Not to mention stupid -”

“She’s worth ten of you,” Wes snapped, moving away from the wall with a slight wince, putting all his strength into a final punch that sent Harper crashing to the floor.

“What…?”

Wes glanced up to see Harmony standing in the doorway, in front of Angel and the guys and a couple of security guards.

“Harmony,” Wes said, glancing at the battered Harper on the floor. He wasn’t sure how to interpret her stunned expression so he turned his gaze to Angel and rubbed his bruised back, “ah, Angel. I, uh, found Harper.”

***

Harmony tapped her lips with a pen as she waited for a document to print; she leaned back, stretching and yawning. It had been a long day, what with her suspicions about Harper, Harper’s arrest, catching Wesley kicking the crap out of him.

That had been the biggest shock. Of course, Harmony knew that Wes could fight; he would have to in his line of work. And she knew he was unpredictable, she had heard the stories about him breaking Faith out of prison and the rumours about Lilah. She knew he had a temper, but she had thought he kept a tight rein on it.

Until she had led Angel and security to the room on the corridor she had spotted Harper and Wes. 

“… I can’t actually believe you’re human. Is that what you were going to do to Harmony when you were done with her?”

“Please, like I’d waste my talents on someone like her. Having to spend an evening with her was a complete nightmare. Besides the hair, the clothes, she’s got a laugh like nails on a chalkboard. Not to mention stupid -”

“She’s worth ten of you.”

He had been defending her. After what she had told him, after the way he had reacted, that had been the last thing she had been expecting. 

And, she thought, almost guiltily as she reached for the print-outs and leaned over to turn the computer off, he had looked kinda hot when he was kicking Harper’s ass.

“Harmony.”

She jumped, turning in her chair to see Wes looking down at her through the dull gloom of the lobby.

“Wes,” she replied evenly.

“Can we talk?” he asked.

She shrugged, picked up her jacket and purse and went to sit on the stairs with him. She glanced at him, his profile shadowy and brooding in the half light. 

“Why did you do it, Wes?” she asked after a moment, “why did you fight him?”

“Because…” Wes frowned, as though trying to remember, “have you seen the photos of his victims?” Harmony shook her head and Wes nodded, “good. It’s not pretty. He is quite possibly the cruellest man alive… And yet he had the gall to insult you.”

“That’s why?” Harmony stared at him, feeling a warm feeling grow in her stomach, “you beat him up because of what he did to his victims and because he insulted me?”

“That’s pretty much it,” Wes shrugged, “I suppose you think I’m an animal.”

“No,” Harmony said, “I’m a vampire; I can’t make that kinda judgement. Anyway, I’m kinda flattered.”

“I’m sorry, Harmony,” Wes said softly, “about that thing with Louise.”

Harmony snorted and shifted, turning away slightly, the memory of his previous coldness chilling the warm feeling inside.

“Yeah,” she said coolly, “you should be.”

“I mean for the way I reacted,” he added, “I’m not sorry that I was upset about what you did.”

“No,” Harmony replied, casting him a sidelong glance, “of course you’re not,” she nibbled her lip and gave a small, self conscious shrug, “but I get it. I shouldn’t have lied about you. Or Gunn.”

“No, you shouldn’t. But I suppose I understand.”

“You do?” Harmony’s gaze was hopeful.

“Well, I guess you thought you were doing the right thing, though I don’t think you were. But I felt the same way about Harper. I thought he was wrong for you and I tried to get involved,” he glanced at her and stuck out his hand, “I’m sorry for overreacting… Friends?”

“I’m sorry for what I did with Louise and for not listening about Harper. Friends,” she confirmed, shaking his hand, “so... Pizza and movie?”

“Why not?”

***

TBC...

I have to add that right now, I’m delirious with joy over the 3-0 England victory over Switzerland. No, we weren’t exactly on fire, but I doubt anyone could fault Wayne Rooney. Huh, one of these days, I’ll have to write a fic where Wes watches football. Maybe with Angel…


	6. Dumb Blonde

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter because the last one was so long, the turning point in this fic.

Author's Note: A shorter chapter because the last one was so long, the turning point in this fic. 

***

Harmony was grinning when she entered the office the following morning, swinging her purse and greeting everybody she met. 

Pizza had been great, the movie brilliant. She sat down, turned on her computer and congratulated herself. She had known all he needed was time to understand what she did. So it took a psychopathic murderer to get them both to see the light, at least it happened and things were ok now. 

And, Harmony added silently, I won’t do anything that stupid ever again.

“Morning, Harmony,” Fred said, as she crossed the lobby towards Angel’s office.

“Morning, Fred!” Harmony replied chirpily.  
Fred stopped and turned, eyebrows raised in surprise.

“You’re a lot happier than you have been for the past few days,” she came towards the desk and leaned over, “have you and Wes made up?”

“Yep,” Harmony nodded, “it was only a matter of time before he realised he couldn’t live without my fashion sense and sparkling conversation.”

“Of course,” Fred agreed with a smile, “hey, what do you say to a drink after work? Unless you and Wes have got some best friend thing going on?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call us best friends,” Harmony said, glancing at a pile of files beside her computer. 

The tatty edge of a Post-It caught her eye and she pulled it towards her.

Fred.

Eve.

The girl from Files and Records

“But,” Harmony went on, her mind whirring into action, “a drink with a girl friend would be great,” she beamed innocently at Fred, “I can’t wait.”

***

Harmony gathered her things together, tidied her desk, rearranged her unicorns quickly and grabbed her jacket and purse ready to meet Fred in her lab.

“Harmony, wait!” 

She stopped, turning to see Wesley coming across the lobby, holding a box. 

“Hey, Wes,” she said, “what’s up?

“I just…” he tailed off, looking slightly embarrassed as he lowered his gaze, “well, Fred mentioned that you were going out together. So I wanted to see you before… I wanted to apologise – again – for what happened with Louise and Harper. And well, I’d been working on this for a while, so I thought I’d give it to you now. Here,” he held out the box.

Harmony raised her eyebrows and took the box.

“You didn’t have to,” Harmony said, giggling in anticipation as she opened the box, “I haven’t got you any – Oh my God! Wesley!”

Letting the box fall to the floor, she snatched up the hand held mirror and stared at her reflection.

“It doesn’t work with every mirror,” Wes explained, “just that one, it’s enchanted. I got thinking about it after you helped me with my, uh, dress sense. I thought it would come in handy. It’s not very -” he was interrupted as Harmony threw herself at him; arms tight round his neck, looking into the mirror at the same time.

“You rock,” she said, “you rock in so many ways.”

“It’s not much. But thank you,” he grinned as she pulled back, “anyway; I’ve got things I need to do. Have a good evening with Fred.”

“Oh, I will,” Harmony murmured, smirking as he returned to his office. She took a final glance in the mirror, “wow. My make-up is good for someone who hasn’t had a reflection for five years.”

***

Fred sipped her Cosmopolitan and winced. She would have preferred a Southern Comfort, but Harmony talked her into cocktails. Apparently a Screaming Orgasm was second on the list for the evening. Harmony had entered the office, tucking something into her purse as she reeled off the list of cocktails. Thanks to Harmony’s wonderful timing, she had said “And then we’ll have a Screaming Orgasm,” at the exact moment Knox had walked into the lab.

“So, I guess you and Wes aren’t hanging out as much since you moved to Wolfram and Hart?” Harmony asked.

“No, I guess not,” Fred shrugged, “we see each lots at work. But that’s work. We don’t have much time to hang out as we did back at the Hyperion. And when we’ve got time, he’s hanging out with you and I’m with Knox.”

“Knox?” Harmony said, straightening up and staring at Fred. Oh no, oh please no. Not Knox.

“Yeah,” Fred hid her smile in her glass and shrugged as she blushed, “we’re dating.”

“But-but what about Wesley?!” Harmony blurted.

“Wesley?” Fred wrinkled her nose in confusion, then comprehension dawned in her eyes, “oh. Well, there was something,” she lowered her eyes, a little embarrassed, “last year. But that was just one kiss and some… tension. We weren’t… thinking about dating each other recently.”

“What?” Harmony blinked, seeing Wes’s perfect girlfriend slipping away, “but he’s totally in love with you!” Fred glanced up sharply at that, her eyes wide, disbelieving and slightly horrified, “I mean, he really likes you.”

“He did once,” Fred said, “but we’re just friends now.”

“But why Knox instead of Wesley?” Harmony pressed, “Wesley’s the perfect guy. He’s English, which is always a turn on. He’s fun, has a brilliant sense of humour and dresses so well since I gave him a few pointers. And his eyes! Have you not noticed the eyes? I would kill for those eyes, not to mention the eyelashes. He has this adorableness that makes you wanna hug him, but he’s got that sexy dangerous thing going on. He works out, he kicks ass, where’s the bad here? And he’s hot,” Harmony added as an afterthought.

“Yes, Harmony.” Fred said slowly, “I know all that. But I’m seeing Knox, Harmony.”

“But Wes is great boyfriend material!”

“Then you date him!” Fred cried in exasperation, getting up to order the next round of drinks.

Harmony blinked after her.

“Me?”

***

Harmony yawned her way through the next morning, having been unable to sleep because of what Fred had said. It was just a throwaway comment, just something Fred had said to close the conversation. Which it effectively had, but Harmony had been pretty poor company after that. 

Until Fred had asked the killer question.

“Harmony, you don’t… like Wesley, do you?”

“What? No! No, don’t be stupid! He’s so not my type.”

And that’s what Harmony had been mulling over. What if Fred was bang on with her question? What if Harmony’s quest for Wesley’s perfect girlfriend had been borne out of Harmony’s own feelings for Wesley?

No. No, that was ridiculous. Wesley was her friend. Wesley was someone she hung out with, talked to, even fell out with on occasion. Wesley was not someone she had a crush on.

“Good morning, Harmony,” Wes greeted, stifling a yawn and running his fingers through his hair, “you have a good night?”

“What?” Harmony blinked herself clear of her close scrutiny of Wesley, “oh, yes. It was good. I got a bit drunk.”

Her gaze had been speared the moment Wesley entered the lobby. He was more unkempt than usual. He hadn’t shaved and his hair was in disarray. He looked sleepy, but he looked presentable, thanks to his now usual combination of suit and shirt – which today was violet. The two last buttons on his shirt were undone and his suit jacket was thrown over his arm. He placed it on her desk and did up the last two buttons.

“I wish I could have gotten drunk,” he said as he did so, “Instead I was here ‘til two thirty working on some stuff for Angel. You’ve not got any painkillers, have you?” he rubbed his head.  
“Sorry, no,” she shook her head, “maybe Gunn’s got some.”

“Yeah, I’ll go ask him. See you later.”

She nodded, watched him take his jacket, straighten the collar of his shirt and swing his arm back down to his side.

Wesley was definitely someone Harmony had a crush on.

“Wes!” she called out, as the realisation crashed upon her, he turned, eyebrows raised in question above sleepy eyes. She twisted her fingers, feeling like a love-struck teen again, “what do you say to dinner tonight?”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” he replied, “I’ve got to give Angel the stuff I finished last night. Then I’m going out for a drink with Angel and Gunn tonight. Gunn felt we hadn’t been hanging out much, so we’re going for beer. It’s all very manly.”

“Oh,” Harmony sank back into her seat, not having realised she had started to rise in anticipation of his answer, “ok. Don’t worry.”

“No hard feelings?” he asked, one side of his mouth quirking up in a smile.

She shook her head and slumped dejectedly at her desk as he carried on in the direction of Gunn’s office.

“Apparently not,” she mumbled.

***

To Be Continued…  
Ok, let’s pretend that Knox wasn’t evil. Just pretend he was a prat because he’s an idiot, rather than because he worshipped some demon god.


	7. Dinner Non-Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I liked the way Fred and Harmony got on in "Harm's Way" and Harm needs a gal pal at the moment, methinks

Author's Note: I liked the way Fred and Harmony got on in "Harm's Way" and Harm needs a gal pal at the moment, methinks

***

Harmony nibbled her lip, studying the row of make-up before her. Blue or pink eye shadow? Blue who match her eyes, but she was wearing a pink top… Or maybe she should wear the white shirt, it would look professional, give her some distance, but it she looked way hot in it.

She got up, riffling through her closet for the white shirt, pale blue jeans and her pink, stiletto boots.

"Right," she said firmly, sliding into the jeans and reaching down to pull her boots on. She pulled on the shirt, seated herself back at her vanity table and applied her make-up in record time, smiling at her reflection the whole time. She brushed her hair back and gave herself a liberal spritz of perfume.

She stood up, backing away to the opposite end of the room so that her entire body fitted into the mirror.

"Wesley Wyndham-Pryce," she murmured through shiny pink lips, "here I come. Get ready to meet your destiny…"

***

"…Yes, I know, but I really don't have any spare time to work in the lab with you today, Fred. I could drop by tomorrow."

"Really?" Fred grinned, pushing her hair back with relief, "it's just gonna take a while and it would be easier if you were there. So, the lab, at about nine tomorrow?"

"It's a date then," Wes nodded, giving her a smile as she left.

Harmony hesitated a few steps away. A date?

"You know she's going out with Knox, right?" she said bluntly.

"Good morning, Wesley. How are you this morning?" he said, turning slowly to look at her, "very well, thank you so much for asking. Quite relaxed actually after a good night out. And yes, I know about Fred and Knox and I'm fine about it. How was your evening?" he blinked, as though suddenly noticing her, "you look different," he narrowed his eyes, "who are you after now? Hopefully someone more suitable than Scott Harper."

"Suitable?" Harmony raised her eyebrows, "didn't suitability cause us a whole heap of trouble only a couple of days ago?"

"Ah, yes," he nodded, moving to her side as they walked over to her desk, "my lips are sealed on that score."

"Good," Harmony nodded, "and what do you mean I look different?"

"Less pink and frilly," he said, glancing at the ruffled edges of her shirt, "well, less pink anyway."

She smirked, settling into her chair and stretching out one long, lean, skin-tight denim clad leg and nudged his shin with the pointy toe of her boot.

"Still pink," she said.

"You wouldn't be you if there were no pink," he grinned, his gaze slanting to the unicorns on her desk, "and no glitter and unicorns. I'll see you later."

She watched him go, tapping her fingers.

"Wesley!"

He peered back round the wall, eyebrows raised in question.

"Yes?"

"It's my birthday," she blurted out.

"It is?"

Actually, her birthday had been a couple of months back. The closest she had to a birthday coming up was the anniversary of her turning, but that wasn't for a few months, neatly coinciding with Graduation Day. But, as she had never really acknowledged it before and her real birthday had long gone, she figured this was as good a cover story as any.

"Well, not my actual birthday. It's the fifth anniversary of my turning and now you've removed the main disadvantage of being a vampire, I've got cause to celebrate, which gives me an excuse to dress up. But, I'll need someone to come along. So – you, me, dinner, tomorrow at eight."

"I'll ask Fred to come too, I know you two get along," Wes said, "what should I say if she wants to bring Knox?"

"Nothing!" Harmony yelped, "I mean, it's my treat, I'm paying. I can only afford you and me. I've told Fred, we're going to go out shopping this evening instead."

Wes nodded and disappeared. Harmony slumped in her seat.

"I've got nothing to wear!"

***

Fred hugged the pile of files to her chest with one arm, sucking the dregs of her strawberry milkshake through a straw.

"Fred!"

Fred jumped, choking on her milkshake as the shriek echoed down the corridor. She heard the thud of boots on the carpet and then felt the manicured grip dig into her arm.

"Thank God I found you!" Harmony cried, wheeling Fred round.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked, eyes suddenly widening in alarm, "is it Wesley? Angel? What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing like that," Harmony replied, waving her hand, "I need your help."

"Help? Help with what?" Fred narrowed her eyes.

"Wes and I are going out to dinner tonight – oh and if he asks, you knew about this dinner, but you and I are going shopping instead because it's like a birthday, only of the day I was turned – so I need something to wear. You know him, I need your help to find something that'll blow his socks off. And I need you to help me this evening."

Fred blinked, slowly processing Harmony's garbled speech.

"I think I can do that," she said, nodding slowly, "but, is this, like, a date? I thought you didn't like him?"

"I'm a woman, Fred," Harmony sighed, rolling her eyes, "you know as well as I do when I say no, I mean yes."

"So you do like Wesley?"

"Haven't you been listening?"

"And this is your first date?"

"Uh-huh," Harmony clasped her hands and grinned, "but don't tell him."

***

"I hear you and Harmony are going shopping tonight," Wes said, leaning against the counter in the middle of lab.

"What?" Fred asked, shooting him a startled glance, "I mean, yes. It's for Harmony's birthday – or turning day or whatever. She wants to treat herself."

"It's good," Wes said, nodding firmly, "it's good you two are getting along so well," he paused, looking slightly uncomfortable and lowered his gaze as he continued, "I know… I know it must have been hard for you after Cordelia… Y'know, not having a girl friend around. I'm sorry I haven't been more supportive."

"It wasn't your fault," Fred replied quietly, focusing on the bubbling solution in front of her, "you and the guys were dealing," she turned to grin at him, "but I know what you mean. It's nice to have a girl friend. It kinda feels like things are settling down, the gang are getting back together, you know? We're dropping in on each other now for other than work purposes and you and the guys went out last night. Things are looking up."

"Yes," Wes mused, "I suppose you could say our group is reforming, albeit without – ah, I mean, with the additions of Harmony… and Knox, of course."

He raised an eyebrow at her and Fred found herself blushing and giggling girlishly.

"You know?"

"It's headline news around here," Wes smiled, "I suppose you really like him?"

"I really like him," Fred confirmed.

"Well, then it's all worked out well," he pushed away from the counter, "I'll be going then. Have a good time with Harmony."

"I will," Fred paused, watching Wes as he started to leave, "Wes?" he turned, waiting for her to speak, "you, uh, you know what you said about things working out well? You think you and Harmony might work out well? I mean, you know? You're close, you're going to dinner tomorrow, you both had that thing over each others prospective partners…"

"It's just dinner," Wes said, "I went to dinner with Cordy and had countless takeaways with you and we're just friends. Just like Harmony and I."

Fred nibbled her lip as she watched him leave.

"Uh-oh."

***

Having waved aside Fred's doubts, Harmony had thoroughly enjoyed herself over the next couple of days. She had managed to show Fred the true meaning of shopping 'til you dropped, although it had been Fred that dropped, rather than Harmony. The following day had been spent in nervous anticipation. It had always been Harmony's favourite part of a date, the waiting, the feeling that you were gonna look great, he was gonna be knocked sideways and it would go brilliantly.

Fred had caught her as Harmony left work to get ready. But Harmony ignored her final warning, "Don't get your hopes up. He really has no idea this is a date. And I don't know how he'd feel if he did know."

Harmony, you see, was confident. Confident that Wes didn't need to know it was a date because if he did, he'd only get all shy and embarrassed. She was confident that, once he saw her, he would be so bowled over that she needn't even bother flirting.

To a certain extent, Harmony had been right. Wes had blinked and did a remarkably obvious double-take when she entered the lobby at eight. And, he had goggled at her for over a minute before gathering his wits and reverting to his normal self.

Wherein lay the problem.

Wes's normal self – though vastly intelligent when it came to research, translating and identifying any number of squick-worthy demons – was about as thick as two short planks when it came to signals.

Harmony had done everything.

She had flirted, but he had laughed and joked in return.

She had fluttered her eyelashes, he hadn't even noticed.

She had ran her foot up his calf, he had thought she wanted more space and tucked his feet under the chair.

Harmony had quickly come to the conclusion that Wes was quite possibly the densest male specimen on the planet. She pouted at the thought as she stared out the window of the jeep as he drove her home.

That is, until she hit upon the reason. It was so obvious that she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before. Wes was playing hard to get. He wasn't the type to come on all hot and heavy. She smiled, shifting in her seat as she anticipated her good night kiss.

They pulled up outside her apartment block.

"I'm sorry I didn't get you anything," he apologised yet again.

"It's ok," she said, "you bought the meal and gave me a great night out."

He didn't reply, instead, he got out the car, gesturing her to stay put and came round the jeep to open the door for her.

She giggled as he helped her out and walked her to the door of the apartment block.

"I enjoyed myself," he said, "it makes a change to eat real food rather than something fresh from the microwave."

"Me too," Harmony nodded, "it actually makes a change to eat food at all."

He gave a gentle laugh.

"Goodnight, Harmony. I'll see you tomorrow. Happy birthday."

Her eyes began to flutter close, her mouth parted slightly and she leaned forward. He squeezed her arm, grinned and turned away, climbing back into his jeep with a wave.

In other words, he didn't kiss her.

***

Fred managed to make her excuses about halfway through the morning and practically ran from her lab to Harmony's desk. Panting, she grabbed the desk to support herself and leaned over it.

"Well?" she demanded.

"It was fun," Harmony said with false brightness, "the dress had the wow factor. The food was great. He wouldn't let me pay. We laughed a lot. He drove me home."

"And?" Fred prompted, though her gut told her that Harmony wasn't about to deliver good news.

"And nothing," Harmony shrugged, "he drove me home. There was no kissage. There wasn't even huggage," she frowned, continuing slightly indignantly, "there was only arm-squeezege. And what's that anyway? English for something?"

Fred didn't answer immediately. She had known this feeling countless times over in high school, but she still hadn't a clue what to say for the best. Her instinct had always been that Wes enjoyed Harmony's company as a cheerful relief from the daily grind. She doubted whether he had ever or would ever see Harmony as girlfriend material. She had tried to warn Harmony, make the let down slightly easier. Perhaps she had been too subtle.

"I'm sorry," Fred said finally, "but at least now you know. Now you can concentrate on your feelings not affecting your friendship. And that's the most important thing, right?"

"Are you kidding?" Harmony replied, "I've had a rule since high school – no man gets away on the first try. From long experience I know that three attempts are the limit before you start to look desperate. I've still got two tries left."

"Are you going to try dinner again?" Fred asked hesitantly.

"Dinner? Nope. I'm thinking heavy flirting, perhaps with a male interest thrown in for jealousy."

"Oh," Fred didn't know how to answer that.

"Trust me, Fred," Harmony said gently, patting Fred's hand, "Wesley won't be able to resist me. You'll see…"

Fred wasn't so sure, so she gave only a tremulous smile and the smallest of nods before she walked away, shaking her head. Harmony returned, buoyed by a new sense of certainty, happily to her computer screen.

Angel, frozen unseen halfway between his office and Harmony's desk, gaped.

***

To Be Continued…

Sorry about not including the dinner scene. The chapter would have been too long if I had. Anyways, I'm sure you guys can come up with much better scenes in your heads!


	8. Baptism of Fire

***

Angel – as Cordelia had so often pointed out – was not exactly a people person. Which, he supposed, was odd for the CEO of a large corporation like Wolfram and Hart. It was also odd that this so essential of skills was so vital for a mere conversation with a friend.

He glanced distractedly out of the glass walls of his office and returned his attention to the paperwork before him. What he had seen through the wall suddenly registered with him and his attention snapped back to the world beyond his office.

Harmony was laughing with someone Angel vaguely recognised as a member of the Accounting department. His name was Joe or something… But that was besides the point. The point was, Harmony was flirting. She was batting her eyelashes coquettishly and giggling.

"I'm thinking heavy flirting, perhaps with a male interest thrown in for jealousy."

Angel stood up. He really couldn't let this go on. When Wesley finally realised what Harmony was after and found out that Angel had known, well, that would cause problems. Angel got up from his desk and left his office. Wes was coming into the lobby from his office and stepped up behind Joe. He glanced back at Angel and smiled.

"Angel," he greeted, "you know, that was a fun that other night. Especially the part where you owe me five dollars."

"What?" Angel asked, shifting his attention from Harmony and her flirting to Wesley, "five dollars? For what?"

"I do believe we had a bet on a game of pool," Wes smirked, "and I thrashed you."

"You didn't!" Angel protested.

"I won," Wes insisted.

"It was a fluke."

"Care for a re-match?"

"I'm… busy," Angel muttered, looking away.

"Then pay-up," Wes said calmly, holding out a hand.

With a sigh, Angel dug through his pockets and found a five dollar bill.

"Nice doing business with you," Wes said, his lips pursed as he tried to refrain from laughing.

Finally, Joe from Accounting moved slowly away from Harmony's desk.

"I'd like to see you in purple more often," Harmony said, eyeing him up and down, "it does wonders for your complexion."

Joe blushed, grinned and stepped on Angel's foot as he left. Wesley stepped forward, extending his hand to give Harmony a piece of paper.

He still had a triumphant smirk on his face and her heart leapt. This is it, she thought, this is a note to say how much he adores me, but he can't say it in person and do I feel the same way and is it ok if he jumps over the desk to kiss me…!

She unfolded the paper, looked at the spidery scrawl and blinked. She glanced up at Wesley, her mouth opening in question.

"Afternoon, Harmony," Wes said, preventing Harmony's question, "could you ring Stephan Rickhards for me?" he indicated the slip of paper; "apparently he's the authority on Kun'Gai. I'd like to find out if it's true."

"Sure," Harmony said, swallowing hard as she stared again at the paper in her hand.

"I'll see you later," he replied, "thanks."

"S'ok," she muttered, lowering her gaze and sighing. She shuddered, "I flirted with Joe from Accounting and he didn't even notice -"

"Harmony."

She jumped, looked up at Angel and pushed her hair back, trying to look professional. She smoothed her hair, scrunched up Wesley's note a little too fiercely and tossed it to one side as she smiled at her Boss.

"Angel!" she said chirpily, "I didn't see you there."

Angel nodded, swallowing the instinct to reply "Obviously."

She looked at him, waiting, fingers starting to tap impatiently on the edge of her desk.

"Was there something you wanted?" she asked after a moment's silence, an annoyed tone creeping into her voice.

"Uh, no. I just, um, you know what? Take a break," Angel said, not exactly sure why he said. He had the vague impression that talking to Wesley would be a lot easier if his admirer was not within hearing distance.

"Really?" Harmony was suspicious. Angel didn't give breaks. She wasn't sure whether Angel actually knew what a break was.

"Really," Angel nodded, trying to smile reassuringly at her, "you've been working hard. Helping me, helping Gunn…" he gave her a measuring look through narrowed eye, "doing a lot of work for Wesley…"

Her reaction was minimal. So small if he hadn't been looking for it, he wouldn't have noticed. Her eyes, which had held his so steadily flickered for a second, they glanced over his shoulder before fixing back on his again. It was the vampiric equivalent of a blush.

"Or," he added quickly, "why not take the rest of the day off?"

"What?" Harmony asked, "by take the day off, you don't actually mean I'm fired, do you?" she panicked, standing up with her hands on her hips and declared in a trembling voice, "you can't fire me!"

"I'm not firing you," Angel replied, holding up his hands in defence, wondering once again why he had such a highly strung PA, "I'm just giving you the day off. I don't want my workers burned out."

"You're being serious?" Harmony pressed, her voice low, absolutely mystified by Angel's transformation into Boss of the Century.

"Do you want me to change my mind?" he asked.

She shook her head, grabbed her things and turned off her computer in record time. She only paused when she was free of her desk.

"Angel?"

"Yes, Harmony?" he answered heavily.

"I just need to make that call for Wesley. Is that ok… Boss?"

"I guess," he shrugged and watched as Harmony made the phone call.

He thought she was possibly praising Wesley slightly too much, as she tried to convince the person on the other end of the line that he really needed to come see Wesley.

Angel shook his head and headed towards Wesley's office. Harmony had it bad. Which meant that it wasn't just Wesley who was in danger of being hurt.

"You want your money back, don't you?"

Angel jumped; the finger that had been tracing the rounded side of an ancient urn slipped and knocked the urn off the shelf. Angel grabbed it and it danced in his hands before he got a firm grip on it and set it firmly back on the shelf.

"What?" he asked, looking at Wesley who hadn't looked up to deliver the question that broke the tense silence.

***

"Your five dollars. You want it back, don't you?"

"Oh. That. No. No, it's fine," Angel sank into the chair on the other side of Wesley's desk and drummed his fingers on the arms.

The silence fell again, broken only by the low and steady thump of Angel's fingers on the leather arms of the chair and the swish and scratch of paper and pen as Wesley scribbled notes and turned pages.

Angel had a plan. He was the Boss and he was also Wesley's friend, which meant he knew Wes well enough to have the suspicion that Wes might not deal with the situation properly. He didn't think Wes would have the heart to dash Harmony's hopes. Which, given Harmony's nature, would do no one any good.

And when it came to a choice between Harmony and one of Angel's closest friends, there really was no choice at all.

"Out with it," Wes said finally, laying down his pen and leaning back in his chair to regard Angel evenly.

"Out with what?" Angel asked, "I'm just here to keep you company."

"You've never felt the need to before," Wes pointed out, "anyway, you're actually rather distracting. So come on, what's wrong? What do you want to talk about?"

"Harmony," Angel replied bluntly.

"Ah," was all Wes said.

He bowed his head slightly, feeling his stomach churn with the possibilities of this conversation. There was always the possibility that Harper had returned and had kidnapped Harmony or staked her. Then there was the somewhat more horrifying prospect of Harmony going haywire and massacring everyone in the lobby.

Or there was the infinitely more amusing possibility that Angel was about to announce his engagement to his fellow vampire, which would be hilarious given that Wes had always felt that Angel was slightly intimidated by Harmony.

"Go on," Wes said after a moment, lifting his head to meet Angel's eyes once more.

"It's just… Well, I've been thinking…. And I heard some stuff… About you and Harmony."

"The rumour mill in this place genuinely astounds me," Wes said, shaking his head, slightly disappointed that there was no engagement, "so tell me, what have you heard? Are Harmony and I dating? Are we in love? Is she having my secret love child?"

Angel blinked. The reference to child stirred the memory of the only child ever actually born to vampires. The memory was painful in itself, without the added imagery of Wes and Harmony and Harmony as a mother.

"Love child?" he repeated, "are you and Harmony… sleeping together?"

Angel practically clasped his hands in prayer in the hopes that this was untrue. It wasn't that he didn't want Wesley to have a girlfriend, it was just that Harmony was hardly suitable, given her penchant for biting and blood.

Wesley stared at him, his mouth twitching upwards in a smile.

"Angel, you do realise the absurdity of that statement, don't you?" he asked.

Angel squirmed and Wes frowned at him.

"What on earth is wrong, Angel?" Wes asked, frustration creeping into his voice.

"It's just…" Angel tailed off, glanced at Wes, who was obviously waiting for an explanation.

Angel could handle this. He was the CEO of this company, dammit, and he could give advice, pass on messages, without falling into teeny tiny pieces.

"It's Harmony," Angel said.

"We had established that," Wes replied dryly.

"I overheard her talking to Fred… She was telling Fred you, uh, wouldn't be able to resist her," Angel chuckled self consciously and rubbed the back of his neck, "she's, um, fallen for you, Wes. Kinda hard."

"Pardon?" Wes asked, turning white.

"Harmony has a crush on you. Only I have a feeling it's fast heading out of the area of a crush. She, um, wants to date you, Wes. Y'know; be your girlfriend."

"But that's… I mean…. It's… It's not that I don't… Well…" Wesley stared, turning an alarming shade of red.

Angel, who had never been very good at dealing with Wesley when he was like this, stood up, trying to be authoritative. He had been right, there was no way Wes would break Harmony's heart, which would only cause friction in the office. Thankfully, Angel was strong, he was a Champion, it was about time he saved the situation.

"I told you, Wesley," he said, "because I don't want it getting out of hand, we both know what Harmony's like. Either you talk her out of this… this crush. Or, uh, or she gets fired," Angel's expression softened at Wesley's obvious surprise and odd resemblance to a fish out of water. He cleared his throat, "um, Wes? You ok?"

***

To Be Continued…


	9. There Have Been Saner Moments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This second to last chapter! Just one more to go!

Author's Note: This second to last chapter! Just one more to go!

***

Wes shut the door of his apartment and wandered into the kitchen as though in a dream. He opened the cupboards and groaned, turning away, since practically everything in there had been recently bought by Harmony who had insisted he worked too hard to do a proper shop.

He went into the living room and sank onto the couch, grabbing a cushion to hug to his middle. Only there was a sprinkle of glitter on the cushion from the time Harmony had come round to play Rayman 3 on his Playstation.

The bedroom was out of bounds, given that his closet was stocked up on shirts and suits on her orders. The only safe place was the bathroom and Wesley didn't think that perching on the cold edge of the bathtub was going to improve his mood.

It wasn't that he was in a bad mood; it was just that he was ever so slightly stunned. Well, maybe a lot stunned. Or possibly downright staggered by this revelation.

And then Angel, in his wisdom, had decided that the only possible way around was this situation was either for him to tell Harmony that nothing was ever going to happen or fire her. Which was typical of Angel, really, he was always jumping in feet first with no thought to another option. Not that there was another option. Well, there was, but that really wasn't an option.

Honestly, Wesley really didn't understand women.

He had never been entirely sure of what Virginia had seen in him, though he had the suspicion that she had been caught up in the romance of the situation.

Cordelia had been and Fred was a source of puzzlement, not because they didn't get on or he didn't understand them – he thought that he got them quite well – it was just that he wondered what on earth went on in their heads at times.

Lilah had been, from lustful start to painful finish, something that was hardly a liaison to brag about, despite how he had felt about her.

Then there was Buffy and Faith, who, for a time, had been the main women in his life. Given the absolute failure of that period of his life, they were hardly an argument for his prowess with the opposite sex.

All in all, Wesley wasn't exactly renowned for doing well were women were concerned – they either hated him, died, dumped him or said he was just a good friend. Which was why the third option was such a non-starter.

His third option being that he could give into Harmony's desires. That instead of being friends, they became... Boyfriend and girlfriend – something which, although accurate, to Wesley's mind sounded hopelessly childish. Or lovers, the mere thought of which made Wesley – who was by no means a prude – blush, because it was like lusting after a best friend.

And yet… Well, Wes wasn't about to lie and say he wasn't lonely. No, that wasn't the right word. Lately, he had been anything but lonely. What with the revival of his friendship with Gunn and Angel, the companionship of mornings spent in Fred's lab and Harmony's presence, he could hardly say that he was lonely.

But it had been a long time since Lilah. And he didn't just miss the sex, he missed the banter, the feeling they established between them that was warm and filling. He missed greeting someone with a kiss, waking up with someone, looking at someone you know is remembering the night before in as much detail as you. He wasn't going to lie to himself and say that he didn't miss it.

But he didn't think that Harmony was the sanest choice of girlfriend. It wasn't that she was a vampire, he didn't mind that, in fact, it never registered with him that she was a vampire when they start talking.

It was who she was that was the problem. They were so different, some might say too different, to ever be able to have a relationship beyond friendship. They had completely opposing personalities. Yes, they had gotten this far as friends quite happily, but that was different, wasn't it? Being friends and being lovers were two completely different scenarios.

Though, that wasn't true according to Fred, who had just that morning said: "What I like best about being with Knox is that we were friends first. And we're still friends, but with extra slushiness, y'know?"

He sighed. The problem was that Fred was far too often right about things.

"Harmony's looking pretty today," she had said a little while before he left her lab, giving him a sly look as he nodded in agreement.

Yes. Fred was far, far too often right about things.

***

Angel was staring broodily out of his office at Harmony's desk where she was happily chattering away on the phone. He was waiting for Wesley's appearance, since Wes had told him only an hour ago that he had come to a decision concerning Harmony.

Finally, Wesley strode into the lobby and leaned over Harmony's desk, face stern. Angel watched, morbidly fascinated. This would be where he broke the news gently, but firmly.

Harmony was staring at him, eyes wide. She would be hurt, of course, but in situations such as this, someone always gets hurt. She stood up slowly – now here was the part where she lost her temper, yelled at him. That would be a natural reaction, Angel had seen it before.

She reached over the desk to grab Wesley's upper arms. Oh, aggression, Angel had been afraid of that. Then there was kissing, which of course was what Angel had expect-

Kissing?

Harmony was clinging to Wesley, who had caught hold of her arms and both were currently engaged in what Angel dimly remembered was referred to as tonsil hockey.

He blinked, once, twice, and still it didn't waver. His eyes were not deceiving him. Wesley and Harmony were kissing. He stood up, strode out of his office and froze, unable to speak, too stunned to make the connection of brain to mouth.

Fred and Gunn were deep in conversation as they walked down the corridor towards the lobby and stopped, laughing in front of Angel. Gunn glanced at Angel then followed his gaze to where Wes and Harmony remained lip-locked.

"Am I… Are they kissing in public?" Gunn asked.

"Hey!" Spike said, running down the corridor towards them, with an eager Lorne trailing after him, "I just heard that Wes and Harm are engaged in serious – oh," he stopped, seeing the couple, "right. Forgot how fast that grapevine works. Well, go Wes."

"And go Harmony," Lorne added, "the man's a catch since the suits came into play."

"Angel, are you all right?" Fred asked.

"They're kissing," Angel replied distantly, "with lips."

"S'what generally happens," Spike replied with a smirk, "though I have to say that when it comes to kissing, Harm is rather imaginative."

"I think it's sweet," Fred declared, "they're good together. I was talking to Wesley about it this morning and I told him if this is what he wanted, he should go for it."

"He wanted to date Harmony?" Spike asked, raising incredulous eyebrows.

"Well," Fred smiled, "he said it went against all his saner instincts, but he does like her. She's honest, talking to her about what happened with his dad helped him, knowing she understood because of what happened that time with her and the dead guy in her bed. It's Harmony he's got to thank for giving his dress sense an overhaul; she got him a new PA, ended the gay rumours about him, and has hung out with him when the rest of us have been too busy. She's funny, honest, as stubborn as he is and, guys, I think all four of you should admit that she's hot."

Gunn shuffled, Angel looked too stunned to have heard, Spike was nodding in reluctant consent and Lorne was giving Harmony an appraisal.

"You've got a point, Freddikins," Lorne said, "the girl's quite the little beauty."

"'Til she opens her mouth," Spike muttered, receiving a glare from Fred.

"But they…" Angel turned off, "have we slipped into a parallel universe or something? Aren't you guys worried about this?"

"Personally, I'd say she was a step up from Lilah," Gunn replied, "yeah, she might kill him, but she won't sign him over to the devil as well."

"Ah, Angel."

Angel turned to face Wesley, who was grinning like a loon, with Harmony's arm tucked through his.

"I'd like to introduce you to my girlfriend, Harmony Kendall," Wes continued, "I'm sure you're very happy for us."

"I'm happy…?" Angel stared, then gave them a curt nod, "happy, yeah. It's… great. I, uh, have to go… work…" Angel blurted, grabbing hold of the door of his office and practically throwing himself through it.

Harmony giggled, Wes chuckled and the others began to laugh along.

"You two are evil," Gunn said, putting his arm chummily around Wes's shoulder, "you could've warned the poor guy that you went on your first date last night."

"Oh yeah," Harmony nodded, "but then we wouldn't have seen that expression on his face!"

***

To Be Continued…


End file.
